In many wireless networks, a managing communication station, such as an access point, may broadcast network management and control messages as well as other information, to associated communication stations. These broadcasted messages may request that the associated communication stations perform some type of network management and/or control function. One problem is that these network management and control messages may not have originated from the access point and may have been forged by one of the associated communication stations. These forged messages may cause many different network management problems, which may for example, reduce network performance and increase power consumption and can lead to denial of service situations.
Thus, there are general needs for systems and methods that protect broadcasted management control messages in wireless networks. There are also general needs for systems and methods that also detect and recover from the transmission of forged broadcasted messages in wireless networks.